My Story of Perseid

Astrophotography

Tuesday night was the night! If you wanted to see the Perseid meteors, every source I found insisted it should be Tuesday night about an hour before the moonrise. I headed out around 9:30pm after sitting through the rains that rolled through my area. The sky was clear and I was determined. Too bad Mother Nature loves a good joke…

When I arrived at my first stop I immediately saw two meteors as I was getting the camera out of the car. Awesome! This is going to be great! While I was able to capture a few images, I didn’t see another meteor. And then the fog started to roll in. At first I thought I was tired and my vision was a little blurry and then I realized the sky was being obscured from the horizon upwards. The first image is my best from Tuesday.

  

MLCreations Photography: Blog Post Related &emdash; No Show

No Show
Olympus E-M1 Mark III, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 25s, 12mm, f/2.8, ISO 3200

  

I was determined not to give up on Tuesday. I drove higher into the hills around Holland Patent hoping to get above the fog. I found a location, setup the camera, focused on the stars and grabbed a few captures before I was foiled by the fog again. This time is was close to 11:30pm, so I headed home. Hopefully, Wednesday will be better.

Wednesday came and the sky was clear again. I ventured out around 9:30pm with a single destination in mind. I returned to the hills above Holland Patent and setup along a pasture fence. The first image below is my first exposure after adjusting the focus. I felt lady luck was with me tonight. There is really no good way to capture an image as soon as you see the meteor, at least for me. My best option was to trigger the exposure every minute and wish for a little luck. I didn’t always see every object crossing the sky but the camera caught quite a lot. Some of the streaks I assume are satellites.

After capturing a few good meteors I adjusted the camera composition to include both Ursa Major and Minor. The image below with only stars was my first attempt at a composition and I happened to get lucky. The second image has a couple of small meteors near the fence in the lower right corner. By 11pm I decided to call it a night and head back home. If the weather permits I might head out again…

  

MLCreations Photography: Blog Post Related &emdash; Lucky

Lucky
Olympus E-M1 Mark III, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 25s, 12mm, f/2.8, ISO 3200

  

MLCreations Photography: Blog Post Related &emdash; Persistence

Persistence
Olympus E-M1 Mark III, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 25s, 12mm, f/2.8, ISO 3200

  

MLCreations Photography: Blog Post Related &emdash; Not Yet

Not Yet
Olympus E-M1 Mark III, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 25s, 12mm, f/2.8, ISO 3200

  

MLCreations Photography: Blog Post Related &emdash; Ursa Minor & Major

Ursa Minor & Major
Olympus E-M1 Mark III, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 25s, 12mm, f/2.8, ISO 3200

4 responses to “My Story of Perseid

  1. I think, your efforts been paid off 🙂

    Astro Photography is one are I never tried and I feel the sense of satisfaction is greatest when you can capture the heavenly bodies and events.

    Thank you for sharing 🙂

  2. I was out Tuesday night too. It was amazing. I didn’t get any of them, but I sure saw a lot!

    Great job on your images, I’m going to look again on a larger screen tomorrow.

  3. I was out Tuesday night too. It was amazing. I didn’t get any of them, but I sure saw a lot!

    Great job on your images, I’m going to look again on a larger screen tomorrow.

    I’m home now, but hope to try again tomorrow, somewhere down here.

  4. Just looking at your images on a bigger (then my phone) screen. Excellent! I noticed Tuesday night that most of the meteors I saw were in the Northeast v.s. north like I had read. I did see one go across the big dipper. Other than that it was much more east. Wish I had gone out the next night too, but cyotes cries from the area I had planned on going to kept me in my tent.

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